Liquid milk

Liquid milk, benefits and nutritional qualities in a number of forms

Milk benefits on health

Practically it is not really realistic to conduct long term intervention studies with a broad scope to illustrate relations between milk and health. As a result, milk benefits on health are demonstrated by broad long term observationnal studies. Their results are then associated with other data to determine the “real impact” of one product in a diet or in a given model. Gathering data from intervention studies and observational studies (meta-analyses) helps offering reliable conclusions on the relation between milk and health.

As a result milk is known to help:

Bone health,

Reducing type-2 diabetes risks,

Controlling blood pressure,

Reducing cardiovascular disease risks and colon cancer risks,

Managing weight,

Maintaining muscle mass for elderly,

Recovery after physical exercise.

Liquid milk, a price for quality

Milk producers are paid according to the hygienic and sanitary quality of milk, its fat content and its protein content in order to strictly meet European hygiene regulations. This desire to produce safe milk answers 3 main issues:

To provide a milk fit for consumption: for the milk to be safe, thresholds have been defined for germs and somatic cells, that are real indicators of a livestock hygiene, alimentation and health. Lack of antibiotic residue is often controlled.

To provide a milk suitable for various transformation in the dairy industry: sampling, collection and analysis principles for raw milk are identical wherever milk is produced in France. Milk composition may vary according to animal feeding. After collection, milk is prepared for transformation into many different dairy produce. As a result, milk composition may be standardised. Milk standardisation consists in adapting milk fat content. The objective is to manufacture dairy produce from a milk with peculiar and steady composition.

To insure traceability without discontinuity: quality chain starts as soon as an animal is born and continues until warehouse: continuous cold chain, quality controls… the objective is to guarantee consumer satisfaction.

Milk quality criterion

Fat: 38 g/L

Protein content: 32 g/L

Germs < 100 000 UFC/mL

Cells < 400 000 / mL

Lack of antibiotic residues

Freezing point: no added water

Composition regulations for drinking milk

Milk must also comply with composition regulations. In France, according to the fat content, packing will mostly be:

Product information

Heat treatment for liquid milk

Milk for human consumption may be divided into two categories:

Milk that underwent no heat treatment: raw or microfiltered milk

Milk that underwent a heat treatment: pasteurised or sterilised

These milks undergo only physical treatments such as fat standardisation or protein, mineral or vitamin standardisation, homogenisation to prevent creaming issues, heating to destroy all or part of the flora or microfiltration to reduce microbial load.

Pasteurised milk: pasteurisation is a heat treatment that aims at reducing significantly microorganisms that are in the aliment in order to guarantee its safety and long shelf life.

Sterilised milk: sterilisation is a heat treatment that aims at destroying all the microorganisms that may develop in the aliment. For milk, two settings time/temperature may be applied:

120°C for 20 minutes

140°C for 4 seconds (UHT, Ultra High Temperature)

Liquid milks offered by FIT

FIT offers a complete range of liquid milks for industrial use or consumption.